This invention relates to display racks. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved display rack for use in combination with a walk-in type cooler.
Display racks are often used in supermarkets and convenience stores to display merchandise generally handled as self-service items. For example, display racks are often used in supermarkets to display cans or bottles of soft drinks, the cans or bottles being removable for purchase by the customer in a self-service manner from the display rack. Frequently the merchandise requires refrigeration to prevent spoiling, therefore, the merchandise display rack is located in a walk-in type cooler or a refrigerated area. The customer is afforded access to the refrigerated merchandise provided on the display racks in the walk-in coolers typically through glass panel doors on the coolers.
Display racks are commonly supported at a front side by a series of posts adjacent the walk-in cooler doors and at a rear side by a corresponding series of posts. In order to provide customer access to merchandise contained on the shelves with as little obstruction as possible, the posts which support the shelves on the display rack are aligned with the posts to which the cooler doors are hinged and supported. In this way, the shelves are secured between the posts and cannot be easily positioned forward or backward and must be of the same width as the cooler door through which a customer gains access to the merchandise located on the shelves.
Shelf and linear footage allocations of space on the display racks in the walk-in coolers are thoroughly analyzed in space and sales merchandising studies conducted by supermarkets and convenience stores. However, the antiquated current cooler shelving configuration as previously described has forced stores to devote an integral number of cooler doors to each vendor or product type which is often inappropriate based on sales merchandising and customer demand studies.
Another common problem in self-service display racks located in walk-in coolers is that of the need to constantly move merchandise forward on the shelf as the forwardmost objects or items of merchandise are removed. Traditionally, supermarkets have had stock clerks regularly move through the store placing new stock on the shelves or moving the older stock forward on the shelf so as to make it more easily accessible to customers.
Another problem with cooler display racks of the type previously described is that the forwardmost item on the shelf, although the most accessible to the customer through the cooler door, is often the least chilled item of merchandise on the shelf. This results from the fact that the rack has been restocked from the front edge of the shelf and the newly stocked merchandise has been chilled in the cooler a lesser length of time than merchandise which remained on the rear portion of the shelf. Additionally, merchandise located at the forwardmost edge of the shelf is nearest the cooler doors which is typically a warmer region than other areas of the cooler due to the large number of lights provided on the walk-in cooler door walls and the customers and store clerks repeatedly opening the doors, thereby allowing chilled air to escape from the cooler which is replaced by warmer ambient air.
To minimize the need for stock clerks to move merchandise forward on the shelves and to allow for the display racks to be restocked from the rear edge of the shelves, there have been numerous display racks developed for self-feeding merchandise forward on the shelf. In general, most of these display structures incorporate slanted or sloped shelves on which the merchandise is displayed. When the forwardmost object in a given column of merchandise on a self-feeding shelf is removed, gravity causes objects behind the front item to move forward in the column until stopped at the front edge of the shelf. Typical gravity feed shelf assemblies of this type are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,203,553 and 2,443,871. These two patents disclose gravity feed racks for cans in which the cans are disposed with their axes horizontal so that the rear can on the shelf can roll down the sloped shelf in response to removal of the lead can in the column.
Another type of gravity feed shelf assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,618. In this patent, cans with their axis disposed in a generally vertical plane slide down a sloped shelf to the front edge thereof.
However, racks of the types disclosed in these patents, while providing gravity feed shelving, do not allow the shelves to be adjusted depending on the needs of the particular cooler configuration or the merchandising requirements of the store. Cooler display racks of the type described still must be positioned with the forward posts aligned with the posts on the cooler doors and with the front edge of the shelf directly adjacent the inside surface of the cooler door.